Midnight Talk, Issue 301.
Following the surge in sales from Issue 300, Midnight Talk wasted no time in launching Issue 301.
Because they still hadn't figured out what caused the previous spike, they continued to heavily feature Sanyue in this issue.
At the same time, Huang Yifan's 'Strange Tales' was once again accepted by Midnight Talk.
However, unlike the previous 'Strange Tales', this time's story was about an " Ear Dweller."
Unfortunately, because "Strange Tales - Ear Dweller" was a short piece and wasn't given much attention, it was once again placed at the very end of the magazine.
Even so, readers who had read the previous 'Strange Tales' in Issue 300 immediately sought it out when the new issue was released.
…
Still at Xiaojiang Middle School, still Xiaojiang Middle School's Xie Yanping.
After reading 'Strange Tales' in the last issue, Xie Yanping became a diehard fan of Midnight Talk.
Not only that, he even got a few friends, who'd never read the magazine before, hooked.
And it wasn't even because he strongly recommended it to them. The real reason? He shared the 'Strange Tales' story in the dorm before bed.
The result? No one in the dorm could sleep that night. The next morning, all of them dragged their red-eyed selves into class.
From that point on, everyone in the dorm became fans of 'Strange Tales' just like Xie Yanping.
"'Strange Tales: Ear Dweller.'"
Early in the morning, Xie Yanping rushed to the newsstand and bought a copy of Issue 301 of Midnight Talk.
Unable to wait, he flipped straight to the last page.
Fortunately, his anticipation wasn't in vain. 'Strange Tales' held the final spot once again.
Author Fanchen had written a brand-new 'Strange Tales' story.
This one was called 'Ear Dweller'.
Just the title alone was intriguing.
A person living inside an ear?
That level of imagination could beat out a ton of other supernatural stories.
He kept reading. The story was about a scholar obsessed with Daoist cultivation, who practiced diligently at home. After a few months, he made a bit of progress and began to hear faint voices inside his ears. The scholar was thrilled, thinking he had successfully refined an inner elixir. From then on, during every session of cultivation, he would communicate with the ear-dwelling person.
One day, the Ear Dweller jumped out of his ear. It turned out to be a tiny figure, only three inches tall, with a fierce face like a yaksha. At that moment, a neighbor came over asking to borrow something. The tiny creature panicked and ran wildly around the room before disappearing somewhere. After it vanished, the scholar felt as if he'd lost his soul. He developed a mental illness, screamed daily, and only recovered after taking medicine for six months.
This story, unlike 'Biting a Ghost', wasn't scary. Xie Yanping just found it interesting and creative. The concept of an "Ear Dweller" was unlike anything ordinary people could come up with.
What's more, the story seemed to have a strange power; as soon as he read it, it etched itself into his mind. He couldn't forget it, even if he tried.
That was Xie Yanping's first impression.
But after finishing the story, he felt it might not be just a simple tale.
For instance, why did the scholar go mad and die after the little creature disappeared?
At first, Xie Yanping couldn't figure it out. But later that night, while reviewing history, he read about how people in the Northern and Southern Dynasties were obsessed with Daoism, and suddenly, it clicked.
'Ear Dweller' wasn't just a story. It was a parable warning about the dangers of superstition.
There's no such thing as golden elixir cultivation. There's no such thing as an Ear Dweller. Everything was just the fantasy of a scholar obsessed with mystical arts.
When the illusion shattered, all that was left was madness.
My god, this 'Strange Tales' story was brilliant.
Only now did Xie Yanping truly understand it and grasp what the author was trying to say.
Incredible. Truly incredible.
Who would've thought a story in a supernatural magazine could be filled with such deep meaning?
This was on par with, maybe even better than, some of the so-called classics in textbooks.
But then, why was such a masterpiece buried at the back?
Meanwhile, that horribly written 'Even Ghosts Despair' by Sanyue was still being featured as the headliner?
Infuriating.
As a diehard fan of Midnight Talk, Xie Yanping was furious.
He grabbed a pen and decided to write a letter to the magazine.
He was going to rip into the editorial team.
Are you blind?
Or do you just want the magazine to go under?
You've got a gem of a story right under your nose, and you don't treasure it; instead, you keep pushing Sanyue's garbage.
Fine! Push it all you want. But why the hell are you stretching 'Even Ghosts Despair' into seven or eight pages? That's just filler.
He strongly demanded 'Strange Tales' be promoted, and that the magazine publish more stories from the series.
…
Midnight Talk editorial office.
After Issue 300's spike in sales, Issue 301 once again set a new record: up by another 7.000 copies. Total sales now stood at over 63.000.
Right on cue, editor Lin Hao once again filed a request to increase Sanyue's manuscript fee.
But once again, Zhou Qing turned it down.
He still felt that 'Even Ghosts Despair' was just average, even though it had been serializing, and even though the magazine had seen back-to-back sales increases since it started.
He decided to wait a little longer.
"Editor-in-Chief Zhou, here's your mail from Midnight Talk."
That afternoon, the postman, Xiao Wang, handed over a dozen letters addressed to the magazine.
Zhou Qing set aside his current work and began reading them.
They were mostly letters from readers, about a dozen of them. That surprised him.
After all, Midnight Talk hadn't received reader mail in over half a year.
A magazine with no reader engagement is usually a magazine on its last legs.
There were even times when Zhou Qing doubted if anyone was still reading Midnight Talk at all.
Luckily, with the recent sales rebound, reader letters were finally coming in again.
It seemed Midnight Talk still had some life left in it.
In a slightly better mood, he opened the first letter.
It came from a reader in Shanghai.
About 2.000 characters across three full pages. But the entire thing boiled down to one sentence: "I'm a fan of Midnight Talk, and I fully support the magazine."
Zhou Qing chuckled and set it aside.
Readers aren't professional writers; you can't expect deep, analytical letters.
He moved on to the second one.
This letter came from the capital, Beijing.
This reader clearly had some skill. If nothing else, the handwriting was beautiful.
The reader said he was a longtime fan of Midnight Talk, but recently had grown disappointed, especially with the featured story 'Even Ghosts Despair', which he thought was utter trash. He couldn't understand how something so poorly written could be the magazine's top recommendation. Was Midnight Talk trying to shut down?
Zhou Qing didn't know how to respond.
The reader said Sanyue's story was terrible, and Zhou Qing kind of agreed.
But that was the strange part.
If readers thought 'Even Ghosts Despair' was bad, how did Midnight Talk still see a spike in sales?
Especially when none of the other pieces in the last two issues were particularly outstanding either.
That was exactly why Zhou Qing had hesitated to raise Sanyue's pay.
He picked up the third letter.
It was from a reader in a central city. Same complaint, 'Even Ghosts Despair' was awful and didn't deserve the spotlight. But this reader also mentioned another piece: 'Strange Tales'.
Wasn't that the story signed by Xiaoyu?
Zhou Qing had read 'Strange Tales' before. He'd thought it was just okay. Why did this reader like it so much?
He opened the fourth letter: "Kick Sanyue out of the supernatural genre. Go back to writing wuxia."
The fifth: "I love 'Strange Tales'. Please give it more exposure."
The sixth: "'Biting a Ghost' and 'Ear Dweller' are both masterpieces. Publishing this kind of work in your magazine is like hiding a pearl under a bushel. If you don't promote it, I'm canceling my subscription."
The seventh: "Are your editors blind? Ignoring a gem like 'Strange Tales' to push Sanyue's garbage? What, is Sanyue your dad? He hasn't even written horror in over ten years."
The eighth…
Zhou Qing didn't bother finishing. He stacked all the letters together.
Out of eleven, seven or eight were scathing critiques of Sanyue.
At the same time, several letters lavishly praised the overlooked 'Strange Tales'.
Now he had a headache.
Could it be that the sales boost in the past two issues wasn't thanks to 'Even Ghosts Despair'…
…but because of the barely-noticed 'Strange Tales'?
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